Zulu History
Einleitung
Today we will tell you something about the Zulu and their history.
The Zulu
The Bantu are natives from South- and Middle Africa. Every sub-group of them speak a similarylanguage.
One of this sub-groub are the Zulu. Zulu means “heaven” or “sky”.
This group of people counts today about 10 million people. The most of them live in the province ofKwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South Africa History during
the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Beginning of the Zulu history
In the late 17th century the Nugu-people went from Kongo Area to Natal. Natal is a province fromSouth Africa. First they lived in small federations. Because the population increased (nahm zu) and theagriculture became more important, the federations united (vereinigen). Then there were two special
successfully federations. The Zulu were a sub-group of one of these. Both groups fighted together but
the Zulu didn’t. So the Zulu came to power.
Development (Entwicklung) and continuation of the kingdom
One of the first kings of the Zulu was Shaka. Under his rulership the Zululand became bigger and thepopulation increased.
That’s because Shaka integrated the defeated (besiegt) people in his own group.
Shaka organized the military thoroughly (von Grund auf) new. The boys had to go with 14 years in themilitary, he changed the fighting technology.
He was a king who reached a lot of things.
Shaka’s half brother murdered him. So he came to power. He was called Dingane.
After Dingane had came to power the conflicts began with the Boer.
There was a fight between the Boer and him. This fight had called “Battle of the Blood River”. The
Boer won and four days later they destroied the capital.
Dingane’s brother Mpande and the Boer overthrew (stürzen) Dingane from the throne. The newmonarch was now Mpande.
In the Middle of the 19th century began a war between the Boer and the British. This war ended with avictory for the British. After this victory Mpande turned to (zuwenden) the British.
His sons Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi fighted for the rulership.It came to a battle in witch Cetshwayo won
and Mbuyazi died. As Mpande died with 74 years in 1872, Cetshwayo became the king of the Zulu.
Fall of the kingdom
The British territorium was around the Zululand and so the Zululand was an obstacle (Hindernis) forthe British. This was the reason why the British attackted the Zulu in 1879.
There were several battles and in the end the British won.
The British divided up the Zulu Kingdom into 13 kinglets, each with his own subkingdom. Conflicts
soon erupted between these subkingdom and after Cetshwayo visited the Queen Victoria. She
reinstated him as king again.
After Cetshwayo died, his son Dinzulu inherited (übernahm) the throne.
Dinuzulu became involved in later conflicts with rivals and then the British accused (beschuldigt) him
to be behind the Bambatha Rebellion. So they banned him.
Every of the next king of Zululand was only a local chief, because the white South Africans had thepower. So they could decide over the Zulu people and when the local chief didn’t cooperate, theycould removed him from office.
Apartheid years
From the 70ies there was a really strong seperation between white and black people, how we havealready read in our books.
Now
Today the Zulu still live in KwaZulu-Natal. Their language is the most spoken language in the province.
The Zulu play also an important part in the politic of South Africa.

Larissa, Rebecca